This invention relates to an improved caddy for garment hangers, and in particular to a hanger caddy with improved latching members.
Cameron U.S. Pat. No. 3,868,906 and Cameron U S. Pat. No. 4,340,145 (both assigned to the assignee of the present invention) disclose two prior art garment hanger caddies. These hanger caddies are used to organize and retain garment hangers for storage and shipment. They have met with considerable commercial success, and have found acceptance in a variety of businesses.
Hanger caddies of the type described in the Cameron patents include a tubular member and a relatively stiff retainer strip that is substantially coextensive with the tubular member. Two latching members are mounted to the retaining strip, one on either end, and the latching members releasably latch the retaining strip in a raised position (in which the retainer strip is spaced from the tubular member to allow garment hangers to be placed on the tubular member) and a lowered position (in which the retainer strip holds the garment hangers securely in place on the tubular member). It has been found that the detailed design of these latching members is critical to a successful product.
In particular, the latching member is subjected to outwardly directed forces when it is compressed for movement between the lowered and raised positions. These forces have in the past caused latching members to break, or to take a permanent bend. Furthermore, if the latching members are not sufficiently rigid, actuating forces are wasted in bending the entire latching member rather than in depressing the spring biased portion of the latching member.
However, increased stiffness of the latching member brings with it other disadvantages. This is because the latching member must actually be bent in a reverse direction when the retaining strip is completely removed from the tubular member. Thus, if the latching members are to be optimized they must be made stiff enough to reduce or eliminate the breakage and bending problems of the prior art, without becoming so stiff as to interfere with removal of the latching members from the tubular member.
Furthermore, in both of the Cameron patents discussed above the latching members are operated by applying manual forces along the longitudinal axis of the tubular member. This requires the user to insert his finger or thumb into the region between the garment hangers on the hanger caddy and the latching members. If the garment hangers are tightly packed on the hanger caddy, this can be difficult.
The present invention is directed to a hanger caddy having improved latching members that to a great extent overcome the prior art problems discussed above.